I feel that I'm in a similar boat as the OP time-wise and I don't even have kids. When I was in my 20's, I could and did spend inordinate amounts of time doing stuff that I just can't justify doing now. One of them is spending time every weekend thoroughly cleaning my car.
I am fortunate enough to have my own home, but no garage. So whatever work I'm going to do on the cars is usually out of necessity, as in they're broken or to do some quickly cleaning of bird crap. Thankfully, I don't have kids or a dog, nor do I or my wife trash the interiors of our cars. So when I clean up the interior every so often they tend to stay pretty clean.
My exterior cleaning routine had typically been to just take our cars to the local "swirlomatic" and occasionally treat the tire side-walls, plastic trim, interior plastic, weatherstripping and under-hood rubber with Griot's Rubber & Vinyl Dressing.
On a rare occasion maybe once a year, I'd hand wash with my Mr. Clean gun loaded with Dawn dish soap, then clay bar using the foam out of the gun as lube. Then after rinsing with the filtered water out of the gun, sun drying, I'd then apply Meg's Cleaner Wax.
I just bought a newer car a few weeks ago and have yet to wash it. I've been trying to figure out what to do while buying up some staple goods as per my findings from recommendations on this site. A friend of mine does detailing, so I might have him do both cars to bring them up to par and then look into maintenance from there.
I'm all for doing stuff that cuts down the time to do unless it severely compromises the results. In my opinion there is no sense in taking short-cuts if the results are going to suck. To that end, what I will probably do is like a already mentioned, have both of our cars fully details by a pro, maybe investigate doing a coating to prolong the protective of all that detail work and then perform maintenance washes.
I'm still totally in the dark on this rinseless wash thing and using spray waxes. A lot of the recommendations from others here seem really interesting, but some of it doesn't make sense to me - I don't yet understand the terminology or acronyms a lot of the people use here.
I would absolutely love to meet other AG (there, I used an acronym) members and learn whatever I can hands-on. So, I'll probably reach out in a separate post for that. Heck, I've met up with tons of other enthusiasts from all my other hobbies, why not car cleaning too!
I feel that I'm in a similar boat as the OP time-wise and I don't even have kids. When I was in my 20's, I could and did spend inordinate amounts of time doing stuff that I just can't justify doing now. One of them is spending time every weekend thoroughly cleaning my car.
My exterior cleaning routine had typically been to just take our cars to the local "swirlomatic" and occasionally treat the tire side-walls, plastic trim, interior plastic, weatherstripping and under-hood rubber with Griot's Rubber & Vinyl Dressing.
On a rare occasion maybe once a year, I'd hand wash with my Mr. Clean gun loaded with Dawn dish soap, then clay bar using the foam out of the gun as lube. Then after rinsing with the filtered water out of the gun, sun drying, I'd then apply Meg's Cleaner Wax.
I just bought a newer car a few weeks ago and have yet to wash it. I've been trying to figure out what to do while buying up some staple goods as per my findings from recommendations on this site. A friend of mine does detailing, so I might have him do both cars to bring them up to par and then look into maintenance from there.
I'm all for doing stuff that cuts down the time to do unless it severely compromises the results. In my opinion there is no sense in taking short-cuts if the results are going to suck. To that end, what I will probably do is like a already mentioned, have both of our cars fully details by a pro, maybe investigate doing a coating to prolong the protective of all that detail work and then perform maintenance washes.
I'm still totally in the dark on this rinseless wash thing and using spray waxes. A lot of the recommendations from others here seem really interesting, but some of it doesn't make sense to me - I don't yet understand the terminology or acronyms a lot of the people use here.
I would absolutely love to meet other AG (there, I used an acronym) members and learn whatever I can hands-on. So, I'll probably reach out in a separate post for that. Heck, I've met up with tons of other enthusiasts from all my other hobbies, why not car cleaning too!
)pilotpip, fantastic post and the step-by-step procedure and product is what resonates with me. It's one thing when people say I do a XXX wash, or wax or dance step, but without the details of what that is, idk what the heck you're talking about. Yes, all long-time forum members want new folks to search for information, but what if they don't even know what they're searching for well, with all the acronyms everyone tosses in here. Can't there be a Acronym Sticky?
Further questions:
1. IPA, what alky percentage and how much do you tend to use? Is one bottle from the drug store sufficient or do I need to find somewhere that sells a gallon?
2. APC's, All Purpose Cleaners, how do you select one? Does it wind up taking the place of something(s) else?
All in all, I'm looking for time efficient methods to maintain my stuff without having to spend a ton of money to do so. The wife is likely not going to let me spend money on a coating or the time to do it unless the benefits really can outweigh the cost. Heck, I got a quote for a Opti-Coat base level coating by a pro and it's $900!
I usually don't have time for a weekly wash, so I need to use stuff on the vehicle surfaces that buy me time between washes. I guess you all are probably going to come back to coatings to perform that function?
oneheadlite Give me all the words! Wordy posts are great so long as their written intelligently! I'm with you on not a lot of time, so break it down into stages - I'm doing that and will do more of that. For one period of "free" time I do the interior stuff. It's taken me 6 weeks just to mostly clean (Meg VLR leather seat treatment + some trim, Nextzett Pro Cockpit on dash, vacuum everywhere) my new-to-me car's interior and I haven't even gotten wiping down the door panels or touching the glass. Fortunately, I'm not a pig, never eat in my car, no kids or other creatures mucking things up. So aside from the front mats and dust, my vehicle interiors stay relatively pristine.
Griot's was my first "higher end" detailing buddy that I can't remember how I met/found 15+ years ago. At the time, I couldn't afford most of the stuff they sold, but kept up with the vinyl/rubber dressing and just recently bought two bottles of their car wash stuff on sale. I guess I'll be doing a bunch of water-washes to use up all the soap the family has. (NO MORE DISH SOAP!!
What has also changed in recent times is that I'm now responsible for the care and upkeep of 3-4 family vehicles. I've got a 14 Sorento (me), 05 Forester (wife), 09 Odyessy (mother-in-law) and a 12 Impreza (sister-in-law). Lots of sheet-metal and various surfaces. I need to be realistic with my time. I have very little time, can't spend loads of cash, but want to have cars that hold up. And, would be nice to cut down water usage and not add to that bill.
I read Marc's review on the MK37 N-914, was awesome!
